Grand total: $55.00
Materials needed: Flowers, ribbon, empty trash can, wire, two pairs of scissors, cups, ice, paper towels and cooler.
Before you get started on your flowers, you want to prepare your cooler. That's how you'll be transferring your bouquets to the big wide world!
The second thing you want to do, is sort your flowers by color and cut the stems under running water. You want to cut your stems pretty short. The bouquets should only barely stick out of the cups, otherwise you won't be able to put the lid on the cooler!
When you sort your flowers, you'll need lots of glasses and vases. If you think you have enough containers, then double it and you'll probably have just enough. I also sorted the filler greenery into a separate vase. (By the way, vase rhymes with case. Not cause.)
Mix the flower food from the little packets with water in a pitcher and pour them into the cups. But only fill them halfway.
Next you need a workspace! You want to unroll all of the ribbon on your reel and divide it evenly before you begin. You'll need about three feet of ribbon for a 5-6 flower bouquet. Use your ugliest ribbon (and ugliest flowers) to make a mock bouquet first.
You also need a designated trash can, just for stems and plastic. That's where you'll pop the thorns off, too. Most importantly, use a fresh pair of sharp scissors (I used kitchen shears) to cut your ribbon. If you use the stem scissors on the ribbon, you'll get green stains and little tears, all along your ribbon. Personally, I prefer wire edged ribbon, but you can use anything as long as it's at least an inch thick.
Pick out the flowers you want to use in your bouquet and one or two small pieces from your filler vase. Put them together into a comfortable feeling bouquet and cut the stems to approximately the same length.The next thing you want to do is to twist a little bit of wire right beneath the flower heads to hold them in place. Then tie your ribbon in a half knot at the base of your bouquet. There should be lots of stem showing. You want to cris-cross the ribbon and wrap it behind the bouquet. Like so.
When you reach the wire, tie the ribbon into a simple knot or bow, so that no wire is showing. Then stick it in the cooler and start on the next one. It will probably take about 45 min - 1 hour longer than you expect so budget lots of extra time! Otherwise you'll be scrambling to get ready. Like I was.
This is what you should see when you're finished. Make sure you bring lots of paper towels with you, because the flowers will be sopping wet when you take them out of the cooler.
